Abstract

Allied London Properties Ltd has obtained planning consent (Application No 103505/FO/2013/C1) for a new development on land in the Spinningfields area of central Manchester (centred on NGR 383280 398220). The development proposals allow for the erection of a new office building comprising offices, a ground-floor restaurant, a gym, basement car-parking, and associated landscaping and infrastructure works, which will inevitably necessitate considerable earth-moving works. In order to secure archaeological interests, Manchester City Council attached a condition (Condition 9) to planning consent that required an appropriate scheme of archaeological investigation to be implemented prior to development.
Following consultation with the Greater Manchester Archaeological Advisory Service, it was recommended that an archaeological desk-based assessment of the development area was carried out. This was intended to update the conclusions drawn from an archaeological assessment of the area that was carried out in 2003, establish the merits of carrying out further archaeological investigation of the site, and enable an appropriate scheme of investigative works to be formulated.